There has been a desideratum for an effective device and associated program for the rehabilitative exercising of the muscles of the neck, especially in a manner that can provide different, adjustable levels of exercise. People often strain or otherwise injure the muscles of the neck and subjacent joints. This is particularly true of those who engage in hard contact sports such as football and wrestling. Also, whiplash injuries stemming from automobile accidents are quite common. To speed the recovery, it is desirable for the people so injured to exercise the neck muscles in all planes of movement in a manner that allows for a graduated increase in the strenuousness of the exercise in order to speed recovery. The present invention fulfills this need.
Whiplash and athletic injuries can result in joint instablity as well as muscle insult. During the course of rehabilitation it is important to correct both the biomechanical aberrancies as well as to rehabilitate the musculature involved. While mechanical correction is performed through the use of spinal manipulative therapy, muscle correction should be performed by therepeutic exercises. There are several ways in which the muscles can be strengthened following an incident and/or as a preventative measure as well. Such ways include weights, various isotonic methods with the utilization of harness and chain, plate weights on the front and back of the head, or the various neck machines available in health clubs. Machines usually allow movement of the head in only one or two planes of motion. Isometrics can also be done using one's hands.
Since the action of the gross muscles of the neck include flexion, rotation and lateral bending (sternocleidomastoid), it would seem appropriate to exercise these muscles in a functional type of method. The present invention provides this type of exercise. There is also available positive feedback in terms of amounts of strength expended in the various planes of motion. With the utilization of the modality of the present invention, a graduated program can be instituted.
It is well established that muscle training proceeds safely and efficiently when exercise occurs at some predetermined fraction of an individual's maximum strength. The applicability of this principle to the treatment of cervical spinal injuries, however, has been hampered by the lack of an easy and inexpensive method of providing feedback related to the forces generated by the muscles of the cervical spine. The present device provides such feedback. It is a self inflating flexible sphere against which the head can be placed to push it against a wall, which sphere has a handle and means to observe and adjust the internal pressure so that the forces generated by the muscles of the cervical spine during exercise can be observed and controlled or graduated as required for a variety of exercises.